We’ve written this because people still get confused between the two different types of WordPress.

Have you been asked to find out about using WordPress to build your website? Are you confused about the difference between WordPress.com or WordPress.org? We’ve written a comparison of the two versions and provided an explanation of the more technical terms.

What is WordPress?

WordPress is web software that enables you to create your own website, and blogs, without being a computer programmer. It’s a free, open source content management system made up of WordPress core (main software files and database), theme (look and feel of your site) and plugins (add features and functionality beyond the core installation). You need the WordPress core and a theme for WordPress to work but plugins are not required. WordPress works using a dashboard system which takes a while to get used to but soon becomes second nature; you can create new pages, blogs, add menus, change the appearance of your page, and add different photos or logos to the header.

WordPress.com = supermarket bread

WordPress.com is a company which develops, maintains and supports the WordPress.com platform on their own servers

As you share this platform, with other users of WordPress.com, you can’t use plugins (because of security risks), have access to a limited range of themes and must adhere to terms and conditions to keep WordPress.com acceptable to everyone

Can’t add plug-ins or additional functionality

Paid upgrades are available

Your website is supported for free and all updates, backups and security are taken care of

WordPress.org = home baked bread

Can be used to create membership directories, business websites, support websites, ecommerce sites, real estate, car dealerships, newspaper style layout and more…

Works on three levels; core level is the content, themes determine the look of site and plugins totally customise it to what you want

You have full ownership of building your site traffic up and backing up/maintaining, your site

Using WordPress.org means you self-host your site and this takes some technical knowledge

The main benefit is that you can totally customise your website to look and feel how you want it, using over 20,000 themes and installing various plugins

Features and functions guide a search engine through the posts, pages, and categories to help the search engine crawl your site and gather the information it needs to include your site within its database.

Comes with built in search optimization tools; use .htaccess to create static URLs called permalinks, blogrolling and pinging. Download plugins for search engine optimization (SEO).

You need to purchase a domain name and buy a monthly hosting package

Your WordPress files will be stored on your account at the web hosting site and you use FTP to transfer files, from your computer, to and fro.

You’ll have to solve any problems by asking your web master or WordPress.org support forum

The basic package is free and Premium membership costs £99/year which offers direct email support and advanced customisation

You need to purchase a domain name and pay about £60 a year for web hosting service

Your domain name will sound unprofessional eg. yourcompanyname.wordpress.com(you can buy your own domain name and map it across to WordPress system)

You can choose a catchy domain name that reflects the nature of your business

You can’t get revenue from advertising or sponsored posts. WordPress may show adverts on your site (you can pay £70/year to remove)

You have freedom to get revenue through advertising or sponsored posts. No WordPress adverts.

Cannot input javascripts so you’ll be unable to analyse site performance

You can input javascripts eg. Google Analytics.You can optimise site friendliness towards search engines spiders and crawlers and use .htaccess to create apparently static URLs called permalinks, blogrolling and pinging

You can sell any work you’ve created yourself and pay to install a PayPal Buy Now button

You can sell anything online and build an ecommerce site with basket checkout. Much better option if you’re using your website primarily for selling

Storage space is limited to 3GB with no videos (unless you pay for Premium which gives you 10GB extra storage and videos)

Depends on your hosting company, usually unlimited

Blog will remain visible in high spikes of traffic

A huge traffic spike could cause your site to crash

Benefits of being in WordPress.com community (extra traffic, WordPress reader)